Decades
by ParijanTaiyou
Summary: House proposes. Cuddy freaks. Drama (and some fluff) ensues. One-shot.


_Hi guys! This is a little something I've been working on lately. I never thought I'd write a wedding fic, ever, but oh well here it is. I'm still working on FTCTTG, Breaktime, and some other little stories like this. Will try to update before I go back to school._

_I hope you'll enjoy this, and I wish you all a very happy new year!_

* * *

House and Cuddy were on a date.

He'd taken her to the cinema, let her pick the movie. While they had pretty opposite tastes when it came to films, they both had a great time. Afterwards, they rode his bike to one of those fashionable restaurants where you had to wait months to get a table and the portions were ludicrously small and expensive. The food, however, turned out to be delicious.

They were both elegantly dressed – House in an ironed white shirt, Cuddy in a charming little black dress.

It was a date just like she'd ask for occasionally, albeit knowing it wasn't House's type. She was having a great time, and House was surprisingly enjoying himself as well.

Really, the date was going well. He was pretty sure they'd have mind-blowing sex when they got home.

And he wanted decades more of it.

Decades more of enjoying himself, of being happy with her, of not believing his luck for being with an extraordinary woman like her.

Which is why, halfway through dessert, he did the craziest thing he'd ever done. He pulled out a jewellery box from his pocket, stared right into her eyes and asked her if she'd be crazy enough to say yes.

A million thoughts raced through Cuddy's mind in a split second.

Holy shit.

He wasn't jerking her around. He was actually serious. He actually wanted to marry her.

That was a very nice ring, by the way. He had been to a jeweller, probably spent a long time looking at rings and picking the one that would fit her.

She could feel everyone's gaze on her.

Her neck was getting hot.

They'd have to organize a ceremony. Would House want to elope? Would he agree to a, well, more traditional wedding?

What if it didn't last?

This was a game changer.

He wasn't one to commit.

Marriage would change everything.

Marriage was huge.

"I don't know." The words left her mouth before she could stop them.

"Cuddy, it's a yes or no question. Do you want to get married or not?" He tried to diffuse the situation, but she could tell he was nervous as hell. "Actually I hope it's more of a yes or yes kind of question."

"I… don't know." He looked expectantly at her. She didn't add anything so he just nodded, closed the box, put it back in his pocket. "It's not you," she said, taking his hand, which he slipped away from hers. "It has nothing to do with you."

"I don't know, looks like you knew when you were with Lucas," he snapped.

"House, I dumped him right after." She chuckled nervously. He didn't seem amused in the least. She sighed. How was she going to explain herself without screwing it up? "It's just… What if it doesn't work out? We'll have to go through a divorce, do you really want that?"

"So you don't think we'll last."

"House, it's not that –"

"Don't worry, I got it," he said in an icy tone.

And he stood up.

"House, don't be like that!" she called out after him. Everyone's gaze was on her now – but it was for a different reason. "House!"

He was leaving.

She stood up as well, didn't even make three steps before the waiter intercepted her and politely asked her to pay the bill. She fumbled with her purse, watching House walk out of the restaurant, gave the man a few bills and told him to keep the change.

She ran outside but his bike was already gone.

_Shit_, she thought.

* * *

Sheepishly, she called a cab, even though she didn't have her credit card or enough cash on her for the ride. When she got home, she had to give her purse to the cabbie as a guarantee that she would come back immediately with her card.

House wasn't home. She'd expected so, but it didn't make her any less upset.

She called his cell phone, which went straight to voicemail, then his landline, which rang and rang until she was able to leave a message.

"House, it's me. I'm sorry, I totally screwed up. Please call me back."

She waited and waited and waited.

He didn't.

Might as well leave him alone to brood and lick his wounds then.

Rachel was at her sister's for the night. They were supposed to be having mind-blowing sex at this moment – instead, she got ready for bed and laid down beneath the cold sheets.

It was the saddest and the loneliest night in her life.

* * *

The following morning, he wasn't in until eleven. When she saw him sign the register at the clinic, she walked out of her office and called out his name. He didn't even look at her and headed straight to the lifts.

She rolled her eyes and got back to work.

He made another reappearance later in the afternoon.

Well, appearan_ces_.

He didn't have a case and she did not have the heart to head to his office and drag him down to the clinic. Therefore, he was free to act as he pleased for the whole day, and he took full advantage of that fact.

Cuddy was meeting with a benefactor, showing him around proudly. When she reached the ER, she spotted House out of the corner of her eye releasing a rooster in the corridor. She swiftly redirected her guest to radiology, attributing the bird incident to House just being his usual jerk.

A little while later, he rushed out of a supply closet half naked, screaming bloody murder. After that, he had a little remote-control chopper following her around when they exited the paediatrics wing. Lastly, as she was saying goodbye to her donor in the lobby, House kept merrily throwing popcorn kernels at them from the balcony.

He wanted her attention? Fine.

She joined him on the balcony. He scrutinized her like she was his prey.

"Stop acting like a ten-year-old!"

"You tell me. I'm not the one who fussed over a marriage proposal."

So that was it. He wanted to get her alone and stir up a fight instead of talking to her like an adult. She wasn't even surprised.

"House –"

"What's the big deal? What's so terrifying about marriage? Thousands of couples get a divorce every year, it's not all it's cracked up to be!"

"Then why are you so upset?" she asked. "Why do you want to marry me so badly?"

"It's something you'd want. Guess I was wrong," he said with a shrug.

"Right, you don't actually want to marry me, you proposed because you thought that's what I would want from you. You are so full of shit," she spat. "Let me remind you that _you _got cold feet when we started dating! You don't have any more faith in us than I do! That's why you proposed, isn't it? You think if I wanted to dump you, a marriage contract would stop me?"

He looked at her. For a split second, he let his walls down and she saw right through him.

"House, I'd never dump you."

"But you did."

And he limped away, leaving her agape.

* * *

She gave herself some time to mull over their conversation.

Again, as she expected, he didn't come home that night. Rachel asked why. She told her he had work to do.

The following day, Cuddy was having a quick lunch at the cafeteria when Wilson sat across from her.

"Hi. What's up?" he asked, in an overly casual and innocent manner.

"House talked to you."

Oh well, might as well get to the point, he thought. "Why did you say no?"

"I didn't say no, I said I didn't know. He shouldn't take it personally."

"But he did. He's miserable because you rejected him."

"I didn't! He's the one who won't come home anymore! Look, I get that you're on his side –"

"I'm not on anybody's side. He loves you. It's a big step he's willing to take for you."

She scoffed. "He doesn't want to marry me because he loves me. He wants to marry me because he's afraid I'll leave."

"Well, you just gave him one more reason to be afraid."

Her heart sank. He had always had doubts about them, no matter how many times she showed him she wasn't going anywhere. And she could not ignore it. "I didn't say no," she insisted, albeit lamely.

"But you didn't say yes. You didn't say you were willing to take that big step, too." She pursed her lips and glanced down at her plate. "That's how he sees it."

She thought about it.

What was she worried about, really? That things would be messy if they got a divorce? That they would disagree about the wedding ceremony?

Things had always been messy between them. They always disagreed.

She had put up with the man for twenty years and at this point, they were pretty much married.

She knew, as certainly as he did, that he was the one for her – as mushy as it sounded. Even if they did break up, she would find herself gravitating towards him over and over again.

They were stuck with each other, for better or for worse. Matching wedding rings wouldn't change a thing, they'd only confirm what they both already knew.

They would also make their relationship official.

Marriage was a big step – but it also wasn't.

Either way, she wanted to take that step with him.

* * *

So she did something very childish.

She went to his apartment in the middle of the day, while she was sure he had just gotten started on a new case and would not be coming home anytime soon.

It didn't take her very long to find the ring. Surely enough, he had put it in his nightstand drawer – close to him, but hidden enough so he wouldn't have to see it.

And she put it on.

It was hers, after all.

The next day, she made sure to stop by the nurses' station in the clinic around his usual time of arrival. It took the nurse she was talking to five seconds to notice the gleaming diamond on her ring finger, fifteen for her co-workers to gather excitedly around her, and five more for House to walk by and understand what the fuss was all about.

He followed her when she strode back to her office.

"Who's acting like a child now?" he asked as he grabbed her arm.

"What? Oh, this?" she said as she briefly wove her hand in front of his eyes. His heart skipped a beat – seeing the ring _he_ had chosen on _her_ finger. "Well, as far as I'm concerned, I'm engaged to you."

It was his turn to just stand there, flabbergasted.

* * *

She didn't head to bed that night.

She put Rachel to sleep, made herself some tea and waited. It didn't take him long to knock on her door.

She opened it – they looked at each other.

"I'm an idiot," he said.

"That makes two of us."

She stepped aside to let him in. They sat on the couch, facing each other, his right arm and her left arm curled around the back of the sofa.

"You said I proposed to you to make sure you wouldn't leave. That's not completely untrue," he admitted.

"Okay."

"I'm happy with you. And I want it to last. I want you for decades."

They let his words sink in for a second, staring deep into each other's eyes.

"Wow," she said eventually. "Last time you told me something like this, you passed out on my lap." He smirked. "Anyway, I already knew that, cuz as it turns out, I feel the same way about you," she teased him.

"Yeah?" She nodded. "What a funny coincidence."

They grinned dreamily, practically devouring each other with their eyes.

"Now take the ring off." She frowned. "So I can properly put it back on your finger." Cuddy did as she was told, handed it back to him and showed him her hand. "Lisa Cuddy, will you be crazy enough to say yes? This is the part where you finally say yes," he prompted her.

She giggled. "Yes."

House slipped the ring on her finger. It was a thin silver band, its shank decorated with filigree details and supporting a single colourless diamond. They laced their fingers together, he tugged at her arm and she happily sat on his lap.

"'You going to pass out?"

"Quite the opposite," she replied, nibbling his lower lip. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, as she kissed him fervently. He responded in kind and, just when hands started wandering beneath layers of clothing and across warm skim, she pulled away and grabbed the landline from the coffee table.

"You know, maybe it's time we tell my mother. And Julia."

"Yeah, about that…" He took the phone from her hand, buried it under the cushions. "Maybe that can wait a decade or two," he said, laying on top of her and planting a kiss on her smiling lips.


End file.
